Three Corners - June

This is the fourth month of the Three Corners project, and it was by far the most difficult! Basically, 3 bloggers from 3 corners of the world setting out to post 3 photos at the end of every month based on a topic chosen at the beginning of the month. Lindy set the topic this month...
CIRCLES INSIDE SQUARES
And OMW, was it tough! So, without further ado, here is my take on the theme.

Vroom

Firehose sign


Storm water drain

Please check out Corey's and Lindy's take on the topic on their blogs.

(excuse the different siggies, I've got a new PC and I'm playing with PS CS3 and my old templates are not working anymore)

Weekly Winners 22 June - 28 June

Erin and Connor sharing the bench


Double trouble


Doing dot to dot


Succulent Flower

Aloe silhouette

The tired toddler and his dummy

And then there's yesterday's photos from our outing with friends to Lemon Rose Farm. Honestly, I'm not sure we'll be going there again, the service was shocking!

Having a laugh


Sonja swinging


I can see better if I climb up the fence


Meeting the pig


Ben10 Addicts


Goose


I'm safe here!


Carmen's muddy feet

Check out Lotus' blog for more weekly winners bloggers

Photohunt: Bright

We went to Lemon Rose Farm again today, and I managed to get some shots of the guinea fowl that wander around the place. I love the BRIGHT blue on their faces, because it contrasts so nicely against their body feathers.





Check out more photohunters here

Skywatch Friday - Just after the sun set

I love the colour of the sky as it sets over the west of Johannesburg.
I stopped tonight in a shopping centre parking lot to take this shot over Radiokop. I just missed the sun setting, which is normally a big red ball from this angle, I'll try get there in time next Friday night.

Check out more skywatchers on Womtig's blog.

All about me!

Yip, this post is all about me!! It's my birthday today, and even though I was at work, it was quite a good day :) My only complaint is that I haven't managed to take many photos! LOL!

So, I thought I'd show you a photo of me and the boys taken by my mom last week. I have very few photos of myself, and it's even more rare to find a photo of me with my boys. In fact, I think this is only the 3rd time in history that this has happened!

I do have one more photo to show you, just to prove that I did in fact take some shots today ;)
I got a MASSIVE basket of flowers from the guys at work today, and I tried to get some shots of them, but the light was too bad. So this one is the best of the lot. I'll take more photos in the morning light, and post them in Weekly Winners on Sunday, I think.

Wordless Wednesday: Tired toddler

Go HERE and HERE for more Wordless Wednesday

Spoil sports at Monte Casino

I went to Monte Casino today for the Microsoft Mix Essential conference that was being held there( more about that on my other blog in a few minutes time... parts of it were fabulous). Of course, I took my camera along because the place is quite spectacular, but I'm afraid these are the only photos I could take.

I didn't try take photos inside the complex, because I've done it before, and because I think it looks a bit tacky now, but I thought I'd go to the newish piazza area and take some shots there... which was a great idea until a security guard stopped me!! Apparently I had to ask for permission from Management to take photos. LOL!
Apparently it would have been fine if I'd take a friend along and pretended to take a photo of them, but it wasn't ok for me to just take a photo. Bizarre! So in other words, a tourist travelling on their own is not allowed to take photos of a tourist attraction, that's basically what they're saying!

The thing is, I reckon that if I'd gone with a small P&S, no-one would have even batted an eyelid! He only came up to me when I changed my lens for the kit lens!
I'm finding it quite amazing that I'm getting such a reaction to me taking pics now!! I never had this problem with my old camera! This is the second time I've been questioned in the last few weeks, it's quite maddening actually.
All of a sudden people are worried about what I'm doing with the photos! LOL!

Anyway, for what it's worth, here are the only shots I managed to take. I ended up fiddling too much with the settings to get brilliant shots.

And talking about spoil sports, here's another example for you! These kids were dying to get closer to the fountain. I find it terrible that they've got a chain around it! At Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton, there's a similar fountain, which has been left open, and it's the most brilliant sight to watch the kids playing in the water on a hot day... clearly Monte Casino don't like that idea... which is a bif pity!

Cousins

We went to my parent's house for a braai yesterday. My brother, Carl, gave me a few tips about aperture etc while we were there, which was great.
So of course, I had to haul out my camera and take some pics of the kids!

Erin and Connor were so cute. They just followed each other to the bench and climbed onto it (there was no prompting involved ;) )

Remember Connor with his blue flower that I posted yesterday, well, my mom has the same flowers in her garden, and he picked some for Erin :)

Oooh, for me?

Look at my flower!

And now it's in my hair

Weekly Winners: 15 June - 21 June

It's been easier this week for me to find some weekly winners, because I kept some shots specially for this post :).
I've had a better photo week this week (apart from getting quite good results at Camera /Photo club on Wednesday), and I've graduated to using the manual/creative modes on the camera - I still have a lot to learn about exposure, aperture etc as I had to adjust most of them in Photoshop! Talking of which, I think I should get proper PS instead of Elements, I'm dying to use actions.

We went to Parys last Sunday, and I again took some photos from the moving car :)

Burnt


Abandoned


Connor discovered the windmill in MIL's garden


Hairy cactus


Purple flowering succulent
(I have no idea what the name of the plant is)

Pineapple Lily

I had to take a few days off work this week because I had no-one to look after the kids, and I took them to a tea garden to play on the one afternoon (There are more photos here).

Horny goat


Risky play


Pampas at sunset

And I can't resist showing you these too. Connor picked a flower for me yesterday, but by the time I got it, it was all mangled... and this is why...

Daydreaming


Study of a blue flower


Hmmm, smells nice

OK, I think I've shown you enough now ;)

Check out Lotus' blog for more Weekly Winners.

Photohunt: Water

When I heard the rain outside this morning, I was pleased (even though the weather is freezing now)! I'd figured out how to get my water shot of the day.

Rain drops on the aloe

I'm still struggling with the camera, I'm using the manual functions now. But I think this is the best photo I've taken ito light this week. I did have to sharpen it though, I should have used my tripod.

More photohunters at TnChick's blog

Skywatch Friday - Pampas grass at sunset

I stopped on the way home tonight to take these photos, in a vlei close to my mom's house. The sky was just too beautiful, and I couldn't resist taking some shots of the pampas grass against the sky.

Fiery coloured clouds


Silhouette of pampas


Pampas grass

Check out Tom's blog for more sky watchers.

Love Thursday: Who wants a hug?

How cool is this? Shutter Sisters has a feature all about me today!!
Well, not quite, but they used my photo for their Love Thursday post. LOL!

And here are some more Love themed photos that I took this evening when I picked the boys up from my mom's house.

Give me a hug!

Bradley and Granny hugging...

...and then it was Connor's turn